What Aave (AAVE) is
AAVE is the token of one of the leading decentralised finance protocols for lending and borrowing, that is, for lending crypto-assets between users without intermediaries.
On Young Platform you can buy and sell the crypto-asset AAVE on a spot basis: the lending and liquidity-provision features described below belong to the Aave protocol, are operated by third parties and are not part of the services provided by Young Platform.
How the protocol works
On the protocol, users can deposit crypto-assets into liquidity pools or borrow against collateral. A feature historically associated with Aave is the flash loan, an uncollateralised loan that must be taken out and repaid within a single transaction.
Aave is among the largest DeFi protocols by total value locked. Lending activities carry risks, including smart contract risk and the risk of collateral liquidation, and do not offer guaranteed returns.
How the protocol has developed
In July 2023 Aave launched GHO, its native stablecoin, over-collateralised by the assets deposited on the protocol.
In 2025 development focused on risk management and on opening up to new categories of collateral: in June it introduced Umbrella, an automated on-chain system replacing the previous safety module; in August it launched Horizon, a market on Ethereum where institutional users can borrow stablecoins against tokenised real-world assets.
The most significant step came in 2026 with Aave V4, live on Ethereum mainnet since 30 March 2026 and on Avalanche since 15 July 2026, the first multi-chain deployment of the new version. V4 introduces a hub-and-spoke architecture: instead of separate pools, each network has a hub that concentrates liquidity and a set of spokes, i.e. markets dedicated to different asset categories, connected to it.
The AAVE token is used for protocol governance and within the system’s safety mechanisms.
Origins and what to consider
Aave is a long-standing DeFi project, founded in 2017 by Stani Kulechov. The protocol is governed by a decentralised autonomous organisation, while development is carried out by Aave Labs.
Two things deserve attention beyond the volatility common to all crypto-assets. The first is technical: an architecture as new as V4 is by definition less battle-tested than the one it replaces, and smart contract risk is not eliminated by audits. The second concerns direction: opening up to real-world assets and institutional users brings counterparties and regulatory constraints into a decentralised protocol that were not there before.
Aave Market Data
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What does the Young Platform do?
Young Platform is the Italian platform for the crypto-asset world. Since 2018, we have been working from Turin to make buying and selling crypto-assets a clear and accessible experience — whether you are taking your first steps or trading regularly. Over 2 million users have already chosen us (as of June 11, 2026). Our shareholders include Azimut, United Ventures, and Banca Sella, among others. For details on our updated corporate structure, please visit the official page on our website.
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